This paper aims to examine the strategies employed by the peasantry to defend their established rights and privileges against a dominant state. A careful analysis of archival and oral sources revealed that despite having common grievances, the peasants in northwestern Ethiopia have adopted a distinct approach to resistance that aligns with their local circumstances. Thus, this paper argues that local factors play a crucial role in determining the nature, content, and duration of resistance movements. Besides, it provides an opportunity to examine the central role played by the peasantry in shaping the course of history.
This article examines how foreign journalists covered the Vietnam War by focusing on how they reported on the treatment of Vietnamese detainees. As transnational actors, reporters created sources that linked the local conflict in Southeast Asia to perceptions in the wider world. Unlike the coverage of the My Lai massacre, the many reports on the fate of Vietnamese prisoners had no serious impact on public attitudes or Congressional appropriations. By providing a classification of the various acts of violence covered, this article highlights the discrepancies between the prevailing official narratives and what reporters actually witnessed in the jungles of Vietnam.
This study analyses the dynamics of banditry in northwest Nigeria through qualitative and quantitative research methodology. To populate their cells, bandits apply economic incentives and coercion. They also leverage existing social relationship with members of the communities. Banditry manifests through the deployment of large-scale violence, but it is strongly undergirded by a criminal economy. The organizational structures of bandits have developed over time by accident and by design depending on the evolution of each cell and the contexts in which they operate. The paper concludes that efforts to eliminate, neutralise and disrupt (END) banditry in northwest Nigeria must embrace three strategies - the peacebuilding approach, security sector reform, and development.
When Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) commenced in October 2001, the U.S. Special Forces (SF) were the first U.S. military unit on the ground in Afghanistan, utilising their Unconventional Warfare (UW) capabilities. Despite their significant role at the initial stage of the military campaign, SF began to encounter numerous challenges from as early as 2002 and throughout OEF. Based on an analysis of forty-five master's theses authored by SF officers, this paper discusses the structural-organisational and cultural-conceptual challenges. These obstacles led to the marginalisation of SF's UW efforts. Scholarship on special operations forces (SOF) often regards the period of the so-called global war on terrorism (GWOT) as U.S. SOF's golden age focusing predominantly on the activities of SOF units linked to the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command rather than on SF. By examining the challenges faced by SF, this article aims to contribute to a more nuanced discussion of SOF efforts during GWOT.
